Ten great tourist attractions that no longer exist - and their still-standing alternatives

These days, it's Grand Central Station that gets visitors all swoony in New York City, while the more useful Penn Station is an ugly underground monstrosity. It wasn't always this way, though – the original Pennsylvania Station was a dreamy piece of architecture; an airy beaux arts masterpiece. Then it was unceremoniously demolished in 1963, an act of vandalism that spurred the heritage movement in the US. Alternative: Stare at Grand Central's star-painted ceiling instead.

4 THE BUDDHAS OF BAMIYAN

Back before Afghanistan turned into a grim perma-fighting mess, the Buddhas of Bamiyan were one of the country's main drawcards. Built into a Bamyan Valley cliff in the 6th century, and standing at 35 and 53 metres tall respectively, the Buddhas managed to survive Genghis Khan – but not the Taliban. The Islamist fundamentalists decreed the Buddhas had to go in 2001, and brought them down with dynamite. They may, eventually, get rebuilt – Afghan groups are in talks with UNESCO. Alternative: The Leshan Giant Buddha in Western China does the rock-carved massive Buddha thing too.

5 THE PORCELAIN TOWER OF NANJING

There is now a tower standing proud in Nanjing again, after a Chinese businessman donated more than $US150 million to have it built. But it's a steel replica of the original porcelain effort, which stood at 79 metres tall and had a golden pineapple on top. The Porcelain Tower was built by the Ming dynasty in a spectacular feat of showing off, but got ravaged then pulled down during the mid-19th century Taiping Rebellion. One faction didn't want the other to be able to use it as an observation platform… Alternative: The replica isn't half bad, you know…

6 SHAKESPEARE'S GLOBE

Also falling into the category of not entirely faithful reconstructions is the new Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, which has roughly half the capacity of the original and isn't in the same spot. The original, where Shakespeare acted, burned down in 1613. It was rebuilt a year later, but then got demolished in 1644. Alternative: The 20th-century resurrection attempted to stay as close to the original as possible, and still host Shakey's plays. See shakespearesglobe.com

7 THE CRYSTAL PALACE

London doesn't have a great track record with fires, and that's what did for the Crystal Palace as well. Built out of cast iron and glass for the Great Exhibition in 1851, and covering a whopping 92,000 square metres, it had the greatest area covered by glass ever seen at the time. After the exhibition, it was moved from Hyde Park to a hill in south London, but it burned down in 1936 just as King Edward VIII was preparing to abdicate. Alternative: The National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing is a humungous glass and titanium egg.

8 SUTRO BATHS

One former San Francisco mayor's slightly eccentric project led to the world's largest indoor swimming pool opening in 1896. Off a beach on the city's western side, the Sutro Baths had six saltwater pools, an ice rink and a 2700 seat amphitheatre. Not surprisingly, the operating costs were extremely high, and this high temple of swimming burned down in an extremely suspicious 1966 fire. Alternative: The pool at San Alfonso del Mar in Chile covers a whopping eight hectares.

9 THE PINK AND WHITE TERRACES

Long before New Zealand discovered banging on about the Lord of the Rings films, people would flock to the pink and white terraces in the Bay of Plenty. Made of huge silica deposits, they clambered up hillsides rather like rice terraces.

Unfortunately, the eruption of Mount Tarawera put paid to them, replacing them with a giant crater that later filled to become the new, improved Lake Rotomahana. Alternative: The Banaue Rice Terraces in the Philippines are green and man-made, but supremely impressive.

10 GUAIRA FALLS

A series of huge, furious, stunningly powerful waterfalls on the border between Paraguay and Brazil simply ceased to exist in 1982. The Parana River was dammed to create a reservoir, and the waterfalls were consumed by the Itaipu Dam. It was part of the world's largest hydroelectric project at the time, but locals reliant on the tourist trade were understandably furious. Alternative: Iguazu Falls is justifiably the star attraction in these parts.

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